Did you know that there are about 30 endagered languages on the westcoast of the US alone? Take Hupa or Hoopa, which nowadays is spoken by less than 10 people, according to the Rosetta Stone Project. It provides several layers for the online-globe Google Earth: Besides an archive of endangered languages you can find, for example, a selection of more than 1,300 recordings from between 1912 and 1941 documenting the languages, myths, legends, stories and songs of thirty-five Native American tribes.

Another educational use of Google Earth is shown in the video below (after the break). It’s simultaneously less than an archive but more than a learning tool. In it, students use the language they are learning to describe things on the basis of map-data directions, buildings etc. At the end of the video, they suggest using the cops and robbers boardgame “Scotland Yard” to stimulate language learning – have a look.

(via EduTechie)